iTunes 8.1 allows you to autofill any iPod model

The Autofill feature in iTunes has helped iPod shuffle users manage the music …

The iPod shuffle has always had less storage capacity than iPod models, so in order to keep the device full of music without requiring too much user input, Apple added the rather nifty Autofill feature to iTunes. Each time you Autofill, the feature selects songs from playlists or your Library according to various preferences, and then switches out some or all of your music for fresh tunes. Many people have never gotten to use Autofill, since the feature has only ever been available for the iPod shuffle, but TidBITS recently discovered that the new iTunes 8.1 release allows Autofill to be used with any iPod or iPhone.

Apple didn't really mention the expansion of Autofill when it announced iTunes 8.1 and, unlike Genius, iTunes itself doesn't exactly get in your face about using Autofill. In fact, you'll have to visit a few different screens to use the feature, although enabling it isn't difficult by any means. Basically, once your iPod is connected, visit the Summary tab and make sure you're set up to "Manually manage music and videos." Once you've done that, use the triangle to reveal the contents of your iPod or iPhone, and click on Music, at which point you'll see the source selector, Autofill settings, and Autofill button at the bottom of the screen.

The lack of any mention of Autofill and the fact that it's a bit hard to get to are a little unusual for Apple, and may mean that the company has something else up its sleeve for Autofill in the future. If that's true, the current implementation may just be a placeholder. But, even if it is a little rough right now, Autofill is a great solution if you've got more music than your device has room for (which isn't hard to achieve with an iPhone or iPod nano), so it should be a welcome addition for many iPod and iPhone owners.

6 Reader Comments

I just use a Smart Playlist set up to pick XGb of music I've rated highly in the last while to act as a sort of surrogate "autofill". It'd be nice if the random selection smart option had some way of reshuffling it without having to edit the smart playlist, but it works pretty well without having to resort to Autofill.

The lack of any mention of Autofill and the fact that it's a bit hard to get to are a little unusual for Apple, and may mean that the company has something else up its sleeve for Autofill in the future.

Or it may mean they thought it was a minor feature not worthy of much marketing effort. It's not like this is an Easter egg. They list it in the Software Update description:

"Autofill - NEWLet iTunes choose what goes on your iPod for you with Autofill. With your iPod set to "Manually manage music and videos," iTunes can autofill your iPod using songs from your entire music library or from a specific playlist. You can also tell iTunes to choose songs randomly or to choose higher rated songs more often. And you can tell iTunes to replace all items on your iPod when using Autofill."

Very nice. My wife and I share the same iTunes library and we have different taste in music. I've had 2-3 "my pod" playlists that I rotate between when wanting to listen to new music. Now I can just make one huge playlist containing all my favs and sort by song name and should be good to go.

hmm... but wouldn't this make syncing longer? I haven't used it myself so I can't testify just yet, but depends on how much "shuffling" is done, it could make sync much longer than it usually is which I may or may not be fine with..

But other than that, this is a great feature. I hate how I have to maintain two different set of favorite smart playlist because my normal "favorite" list won't fit on my iPhone....